On Obama’s Misuse of the Department of Justice and the IRS, I Was a Prophet

Writing in American Thinker about Megyn Kelly’s forthcoming interview with Bill Ayers, Karin McQuillan recalls something that I wrote in 2008, which I had completely forgotten. She refers to Ed Lasky; the first quote is McQuillan’s, the second is Lasky’s, and the third is mine:

Ed Lasky’s many articles, including this one predicting an Obama Ayer’s-style radical assault on education (think Common Core) and another with the prophetic 2008 quote of Powerline’s John Hinderaker:

Regarding the Obama campaign’s demands for a DoJ investigation of the 527 group ads criticizing his long association with Ayers, John Hinderaker at Powerline asks:

Obama’s suggestion that it is illegal for a 501(c)(4) entity to fund issue ads that are negative toward him appears ludicrous. Here’s the real question, though: if Obama is elected President, will he appoint an Attorney General who will carry out politically-motivated prosecutions like the one he is now demanding? I suppose we can’t know for sure, but why wouldn’t he? If he demands criminal prosecution of free speech that opposes his political interests when he’s a candidate, why wouldn’t he order it as President?

My post, dated August 26, 2008, was titled “Would An Obama Justice Department Be Used To Prosecute Conservatives?” I wrote:

We noted here efforts by Barack Obama’s campaign to shut down his critics’ free speech. In particular, Obama obviously doesn’t want the public to know about his long-term, cozy relationship with proud-to-be-a-terrorist Bill Ayers. Now, Obama himself has upped the ante by demanding that the conservative who funded the Ayers ad be criminally prosecuted:

“We reiterate our request that the Department of Justice fulfill its commitment to take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute the American issues Project, and we further request that the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute Howard [sic] Simmons for a knowing and willful violation of the individual aggregate contribution limits,” he wrote.

Obama’s suggestion that it is illegal for a 501(c)(4) entity to fund issue ads that are negative toward him appears ludicrous. Here’s the real question, though: if Obama is elected President, will he appoint an Attorney General who will carry out politically-motivated prosecutions like the one he is now demanding? I suppose we can’t know for sure, but why wouldn’t he? If he demands criminal prosecution of free speech that opposes his political interests when he’s a candidate, why wouldn’t he order it as President?

Which is exactly what he has done; just ask Dinesh D’Souza or Catherine Engelbrecht. The IRS’s well-documented assault on conservative 501(c)(4)s brought Obama’s 2008 wishes to fruition. But it wasn’t just the IRS: Eric Holder’s Justice Department was deeply involved. Thus, when the IRS illegally sent the FBI 1.1 million pages of documents on 501(c)(4) groups that included confidential taxpayer information, it was in coordination with Eric Holder’s Department of Justice, specifically, Richard Pilger.

The significant point here is that Barack Obama has always been openly opposed to free speech, and has always been willing, if not eager, to use the power of the state–illegally, if need be–to punish his political opponents. We had fair warning of Obama’s corrupt and tyrannical impulses in 2008. Unfortunately, not enough voters paid attention.